Site Mobile Navigation

Cheney Unhurt After Bombing in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 27 — A suicide bomber blew himself up this morning outside the main gate of the United States military base at Bagram while Vice President Dick Cheney was inside the base. Mr. Cheney was not hurt in the attack.

The explosion killed and wounded a number of American and allied soldiers, Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers and laborers waiting for access at the gate. There were conflicting reports of the number of casualties and deaths.

The incident took place at the outermost security gate of the sprawling base, far from where Mr. Cheney was staying at the time. A few hours after the attack, Mr. Cheney traveled to Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai, and later left Afghanistan to fly to Oman. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing and said Mr. Cheney was the target of the attack, news agencies reported. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claimed to be a Taliban spokesman, told the Associated Press: “We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base.” He said the bombing was carried out by Mullah Abdul Rahim.

The claim could not immediately be verified.

The attack took place in a region of Afghanistan where the Taliban is thought to have very little support, and suicide bombings have been uncommon there. Such bombings, especially against high-security targets like the air base, usually involve substantial planning and preparation, and would be difficult to improvise quickly. Mr. Cheney’s presence on the base today was not scheduled and could not have been known before Monday night.

Photo

Vice President Dick Cheney with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan in Kabul after the attack.Credit
Pool photo by Omar Sobhani

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, sought to minimize the significance of the incident at a briefing for reporters in Washington. Asked whether it represented the beginning of a Taliban offensive, Mr. Snow called the bombing an “isolated attack.” “As we’ve often said about acts of terror, an individual who wants to commit an act of violence or to kill him- or herself is very difficult to stop,”Mr. Snow said. “But I’m not sure you can draw larger conclusions about any organization based on an incident such as this.” Mr. Cheney told the reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force Two on the way to Muscat, the capital of Oman, that he was in his quarters at the air base when the explosion took place.

“I heard a loud boom,” he said, according to a pool report. “The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate.”

Mr. Cheney was moved “for a brief period of time” to a bomb shelter at the base, he said, but then returned to his room. He said he had never felt that he was in any danger.

An initial report from the American military in Afghanistan said that four people died in the explosion, including the suicide bomber, and NATO said that three people were killed, including an American soldier and a coalition soldier.

Photo

People waiting to retrieve bodies at the base at Bagram.Credit
Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press

But an Afghan guard at the base said that he counted as many as 15 dead at the scene, including three American soldiers, and that 12 others were wounded. Later news agency reports put the death toll as high as 23.

Mr. Cheney made an unscheduled overnight stay at the Bagram air base, located north of Kabul, after his 18-minute flight to the capital was grounded by heavy snow on Monday evening and he was unable to make a planned meeting with President Hamid Karzai. When Mr. Cheney reached Kabul early this afternoon, the two leaders met for about two hours at the presidential palace.

Told by reporters about the Taliban claim of responsibility for the attack, Mr. Cheney said: “I think they clearly try to find ways to question the authority of the central government. Striking at Bagram with a suicide bomber, I suppose, is one way to do that. But it shouldn’t affect our behavior at all.”

A senior American official traveling with the vice president told reporters that Mr. Cheney reassured Mr. Karzai about America’s commitment to the region, and that Mr. Karzai was “upbeat” about the money and troops that the United States was providing to help Afghanistan.

Photo

A coffin is delivered to Bagram Air Base after a bomb killed at least 23
people. Vice President Dick Cheney was on the base at the time.Credit
Ahmad Masood/Reuters

The American military report said that about 23 people were injured in the bombing attack at Bagram and were being treated in the base hospital. The extent of their injuries was not known.

Reuters reported that those killed in the attack included an American soldier, a South Korean soldier who was part of the American-led coalition, and a contract employee of the United States whose nationality was not known.

The Associated Press reported that the South Korean defense ministry confirmed the death of one of its soldiers stationed at Bagram, Yoon Jang-ho. South Korea has about 200 army engineers and medics at the base, the A.P. reported.

Mr. Cheney’s trip to several nations in the region had been shrouded in unusual secrecy. News organizations that were aware of Mr. Cheney’s travels were asked to withhold any mention of the trip until he had left Pakistan. This appeared to reflect growing concern about the strength of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region, and continuing questions about the loyalties of the Pakistani intelligence services.

In Pakistan Mr. Cheney delivered a stiff private message to President Pervez Musharraf that his government had not made adequate efforts to combat Al Qaeda and the Taliban.